Walter Seifert
|death place = Lindenthal, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany |pathology = Mass Murderer Arsonist |mo =Stabbing Burning |victims = 10 killed 22 injured |status = Deceased |alias = The Firedevil of Volkhoven Der Feuerteufel von Volkhoven |job = |time = June 11, 1964 |capture = June 11, 1964 }} Willi Walter Seifert, a.k.a. The Firedevil of Volkhoven (Der Feuerteufel von Volkhoven), was a West German mass murderer who was responsible for the Cologne School Massacre on June 11, 1964. He is notable for the fact that he used unusual homemade weapons. Background Seifert was born on June 11, 1922 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. He had a brother and was the son of a glass-grinder. From 1927 to 1935, he attended the Volksschule in Ehrenfeld, Cologne. Seifert then began an apprenticeship as a metal worker at a machine factory; he successfully finished in 1939. In 1941, he was drafted into the Luftwaffe and attended the Waffentechnische Schule der Luftwaffe for a year. By the end of World War II, he was a sergeant in an anti-aircraft battery before he became a prisoner of war for several months. Seifert worked for a Cologne car factory before he joined the Schutzpolizei on November 14, 1945. On August 23, 1946, he was treated for a bronchial catarrh, and on September 5, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in his right lung. Since he was now unfit for service, Seifert was dismissed from his job on September 30. This would be the beginning of his feelings of persecution; he felt like the government was treating him unfairly and cheating him out of his war pension. In 1953, Seifert's tuberculosis was found to be inactive. He now had a reduced hearing capacity of 30%, though any causality between his illness and imprisonment during the war was denied. However, Seifert disputed this and accused the doctors of creating false medical reports. He also complained in long letters to various authorities about his issues. In August 1954, Seifert was examined by a public health officer. Said officer concluded that a regimen was not needed. However, it was suggested that Seifert be sent to a sanatorium for observation. It was also reported that he was a mentally devious person who had no chance of overcoming his mental illness. Seifert again disputed this, writing a letter by the title of Sozialpolitik - Sozialärzte — Sozialmord. As a result, he was examined by a medical specialist for neurology and psychiatry. It was noted that he had quirky behavior and a scattered train of thought; he also constantly smiled during inappropriate situations. It was obvious that Seifert harbored paranoid thoughts about his doctors and displayed a peculiar fanatical behavior. As such, it was concluded that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, but he did not show any signs of being dangerous, so he was not sent to a mental institution. Seifert confided in his brother that he was planning on abducting young girls so he could use them whenever he desired. He said that he intended to ambush the girls on country roads, stun them, and then bring them back to his home on his moped trailer to hold them captive in a cellar. Seifert had already made sketches of this. On October 7, 1955, Seifert married Renata Urszula. Reports say that he finally fell apart when she died in childbirth on February 11, 1961; the baby also perished. He held the doctors responsible for their deaths and wrote a 120-page letter called Muttermord — Einzelschicksal und Analyse eines Systems. He sent it to agencies, doctors, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Seifert attempted to prove the treatment of his wife's embolism was done incorrectly, called society a criminal system, and equated doctors with murderers, writing, "The doctor is the greatest mass murderer of the poor in the history of mankind. What to do? Appeal to their 'conscience' – useless, whoever does something like that has no conscience. Does the aforementioned science count before any court? No, thus begins the vigilante justice, the terror of the medical society in the pluralistic chaos of criminality. But terror can only be extirpated with counter-terror, and whoever denies me the protection of the law forces the cudgel into my hand." The Massacre On June 11, 1964, his 42nd birthday, Seifert snapped completely. He armed himself with a mace, spear, and flamethrower, all of which he himself had constructed two months earlier. He approached a Catholic elementary school that consisted of one main building and four wooden barracks, each housing two classes with a total of eight teachers and 380 students. As he entered the compound, three crossing guards noticed him. Mistaking him for a mechanic trying to repair the gate's broken lock, they asked Seifert what he was doing there. He simply ignored them and blocked off the gate with a wooden wedge. He then went over to Anna Langohr, who was teaching a group of girls in sports at the schoolyard. She knew Seifert, and when she asked him if she could help him, he attacked her and the students with his flamethrower. Seifert then went to one of the barracks and used his mace to smash the windows. He aimed his flamethrower at the children and set the classrooms ablaze. People running and jumping out of the burning school were also attacked. During the rampage, Seifert reportedly shouted that he was the next Adolf Hitler. Eventually, his weapon ran out of fuel, so he discarded it and began to use his spear. When one of the teachers, Gertrud Bollenrath, stepped out of the schoolyard, he stabbed her in the chest, killing her. He then approached the barrack where teachers Ursula Kuhr and Mrs. Kunz were at. They attempted to keep the doors shut, but Seifert managed to open one, causing Kuhr to lose her balance. After she fell down a flight of stairs and landed on the ground in front of the building, he stabbed her in both legs and once between her shoulders. Seifert fled the school compound and poisoned himself with insecticide. However, the substance was dulled, and as such, he did not die quick enough. Pursued by 20 to 30 people, he ran towards a railway embankment and tried to fend them off with his spear. When police arrived at the scene, Seifert attempted to stab one of the officers, only to be shot in the leg and arrested. He was taken to a hospital in Lindenthal and questioned several times. The next day, he died from the poison. Aftermath The 15-minute attack initially resulted in one death and 31 injuries. At the hospital, Bollenrath succumbed to her wounds. In the following weeks, eight students also died. The final result was ten deaths and 22 injuries. Both teachers who died had schools named after them. Langohr was presented with the Medal Cross by Pope Paul VI, as well as the Verdienstmedaille and a Lifesaving Medal for risking her life to save other people. She died in 1990, aged 93, and an elementary school in a neighboring suburb was named after her. Modus Operandi Seifert had a bizarre assortment of weapons — a mace, a spear, and a flamethrower. All three tools of destruction were homemade; the mace from a pump bracket, the spear from a broomstick and triangular scraper, and the flamethrower from an insecticide sprayer with a wire netting attached to the nozzle and filled with a mixture of old motor oil and paint thinner. The flamethrower was used for most of the massacre, resulting in an end total of eight deaths and 22 injuries. Once it had run out of fuel, Seifert switched to his spear and killed two women with it. For whatever reason, he did not use the mace to attack anyone; he instead used it to break open the windows. Known Victims All of the following were victims of Cologne School Massacre, June 11, 1964 Fatalities * Gertrud Bollenrath, 62 * Ursula Kuhr, 24 * Dorothea Binner, 9 * Klara Kröger, 9 * Stephan Lischka, 9 * Rosel Röhrig, 12 * Renate Fühlen, 9 * Ruth Hoffmann, 10 * Karin Reinhold, 11 * Ingeborg Hahn, 9 Survivors * Anna Langohr, 67 * Wiltrud Schweden * 20 unnamed students On Criminal Minds TBA Sources * Wikipedia's article about the Cologne School Massacre * Murderpedia's article about Seifert References Category:Real People Category:Real World Criminals Category:Real Life Killers Category:Real Life Mass Murderers Category:Real Suicides Category:Real Life Child Killers Category:Real Rampage Killers Category:Deceased Real World Criminals Category:Unreferenced Criminals Category:Real Life Schizophrenics Category:Real Foreign Criminals